Article excerpt

KAZAKHSTAN'S first contested parliamentary elections, in which
a clear majority of the seats were won by supporters of President
Nursultan Nazarbayev, were unfair and violated international
treaties, according to foreign observers and opposition parties.

A delegation of observers from the Council on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, said the existence of a "state list"
violated CSCE agreements. The delegation criticized the campaign
for unfairly disqualifying opposition candidates, curtailing press
freedom, denying foreign observers access to some polling stations,
and allowing individuals to vote in place of family members.

Karotai Turisov, chairman of the Central Election Commission,
sought to play down allegations of foul play in Monday's ballot. He
said that SNEK, an acronym for the pro-Nazarbayev Union of People's
Unity of Kazakhstan, won more seats than any other party because it
legitimately gained more votes.

"We think the elections were fair and democratic," Mr. Turisov
said in a telephone interview from Alma Ata, the capital. He added
that about 75 percent of the 9.1 million electorate turned up at
the polls.

"These observers should keep in mind that democracy is judged
by the social-economic level of that country, so you can't compare
Kazakhstan with Western Europe," he said. "We voted one way for
70 years, and then they expect us in three months to do everything
completely different."

Official results released yesterday showed that SNEK had won 30
seats in the new 177-seat parliament. Independent candidates, most
of whom support Mr. Nazarbayev's policies, won 60 seats, while
opposition candidates gained only 23. Another 42 seats were direct
presidential appointees, while the official Federal Trade Unions
took 11 seats. The remaining 11 seats were unclear.

Kazakhstan, a sprawling, resource-rich nation of more than 17
million people, is seeking to establish its claim to be a democracy
by holding elections. Its new parliament will replace the former
Communist-dominated one, which dissolved itself last December.

Critics have accused Nazarbayev, the former Communist Party
chief, of tacitly sanctioning everything from election fraud to
personal and ethnic favoritism. …